


Circuit Breaker

by bluerosebouquet



Category: Marvel, Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Avengers: Endgame (Movie) Spoilers, Fluff, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-08
Updated: 2019-05-08
Packaged: 2020-02-28 07:27:26
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 709
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18751786
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bluerosebouquet/pseuds/bluerosebouquet
Summary: Tony builds.  Steve interrupts his work.  There are too many things left unsaid.





	Circuit Breaker

Tony hears him approaching before he sees him.  The heavy thud of boots across the tile floors.  It’s very expensive tile, Tony picked it out himself.  He’s hanging under the tunnel, time travel, thing, working on wiring.  All the blood has rushed to his head at this point, and he know when he lifts up that he’ll have vertigo and stumble around in circles.

The heavy footsteps stop near his head, and he cranes his neck to look and see the boots shifting their weight from foot to foot.

“I charge three dollars a minute, so the shifting is gonna cost you.”

He hears Steve laugh, maybe a little nervously.

“Tony.”

“Two syllables costs you ten cents, how much you got in your pockets?”

“Enough to carry a conversation.”

Tony pulled a couple of loose wires down and strung them together.  Easy as breathing.  Well, breathing wasn’t easy for him when Steve was concerned.  IT was the first time they had been alone since their...reconciliation?  He didn’t know if that was the right word.  But the shortness of breath Tony experienced when he was near Steve was back in full force.

“Can you come down and talk to me?” Steve asked, “It’s like talking to a monkey in a tree.”

“What do you know about monkeys in trees?” Tony said as he climbed down from the inner workings of the...time machine.

“I’ve been all over the world now, Tony.  I’ve seen monkeys in person.”

“World traveler,” Tony smirked, staring, he hoped with confidence, into those eyes.  So fucking unfairly blue.

“How’s the work?” Steve looked up at the tunnel.

“Good,” Tony said, picking up a wrench in a hopefully cool, not at all awkward way, “The Build-A-Bear is helping a lot.  He’s better than me with his hands...paws.”

“It looks good.  Not that I know what I’m looking at.”

They paused, staring at each other.

“The meter’s running, Cap.”

Steve looked at the ground, like he was steeling himself to do something.  

“You know,” Steve said, stepping closer, too close, way way way too close, “If you’re going to charge me, maybe we shouldn’t talk.”

Tony’s brain was short circuiting.  But when things short-circuited, like the time machine or a suit or FRIDAY’s speech systems, he could fix that.  He could go in and tinker and strip and clean and tool around until the short went away and everything was fluid motion.

But this short circuit wasn’t something he could fix, because it was something that only happened in his brain.  And it only happened when he was around Steve.

“I’m not good at the whole no talking thing, you should know that.”

Steve took another step towards Tony, and he felt like his heart was beating so hard it was like it was trying to keep shrapnel out of the ventricles.

Tony always thought that he’d be the one that took the leap, that he’d be the possessive, domineering one that he always was.  But Steve always knew how to keep him on his toes.

Steve leaned down and pressed his lips softly, tenderly to Tony’s.It was just a couple of moments, much less impassioned and ridiculously horny than Tony had always thought.  It was much more of an acceptance of what always had been, an acknowledgement of the things they felt, but leaving it at that.  There wouldn’t be any dates or fights or living together, but there would be this.  This tiny moment where they both had the same thing: each other.  And maybe that was cheesy and stupid, but god damn had it been a long time coming.

They pulled apart slowly, having unconsciously wrapped around each other.

“Are you gonna charge me for that?” Steve said quietly with a smile.

“You know Cap, if I didn’t know better I would say that you’re flirting with me.”

Steve smiled.

“How much do I owe you?”

Tony leaned up and kissed him briefly.

“Consider us even.”

Steve smiled at him again.  Radiant, like the sun, like the galaxies in deep space, like the arc reactor made of nano-tech that he had once forced into Steve’s hands.  And as Tony crawled back into the depth of his new invention, he couldn’t stop smiling.

**Author's Note:**

> No angst this time? Astounding.  
> I love my boys but also respect Pepper Potts or face my wrath thanks.


End file.
